An entertaining and thoughtful perspective on advertising, politics and other useless things...

Monday, November 5, 2018

After Kavanaugh, Democrats Need to Take a Long Hard Look in the Mirror

Senator Booker at the Kavanaugh Hearing (Drew
Angerer/Getty Images)

"There
is a battle of two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy,
greed, resentment, lies, inferiority and ego. The other is good. It is joy,
peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth. Which wolf wins? The
one you feed."-Cherokee proverb

A few months after the 2016 US
election I was at a café in New York and there were two men sitting next to me,
talking loudly. I did not recognise either man but the younger one was boasting
about his press interviews and TV appearances. They were talking animatedly
about the election and how Democrats needed to fight back against Trump. The
thing that stayed with me about their conversation was both men having a good
laugh at Michelle Obama’s expense, saying she was stupid and naïve in
saying “When they go low, we go high”; the younger guy suggested
that Democrats needed to go, not high, but subterranean, when Republicans went
low.

After watching Mr. Kavanagh’s recent
confirmation process it is clear that the left has taken a page out of the
above operatives’ playbook and left the wise words of the Obamas far behind. To
say that the Democrats behaved shockingly would be an understatement. Not only
did they abandon all pretenses of civility and fairness, but most
dishearteningly they started to emulate the same bullying and fearmongering
tactics that I have always despised in Mr. Trump. This was not so much about
the political gloves coming off, which would have been fine, as it was about
abandoning core principles of decency, impartiality and objectivity, which are
values that should be considered even more sacrosanct by Democrats in the age
of Trump.

From the outset the left made it
clear they would blindly block any person without considering their record.
Even before the nominee’s name was announced protestors had assembled outside
the Supreme Court building and a reporter from ABC news noticed that in many
instances the “signs were already filled
out...except for the name.”

It was not just liberal pressure
groups who behaved badly. Senior Democrats also lined up and vowed in effect to
make this an unethical and unprincipled fight. Mr. Schumer, the Senate Minority
leader, went on CBS News and announced that he was ready to oppose the
President's Supreme Court nominee with "everything I've got". The
problem with purely partisan and blind ideological battles is that you only end
up talking to a small zealous minority within your own base and nobody else.
Many other senior Democratic Senators, instead of taking the high ground,
followed suit, vilifying and attacking Mr. Kavanaugh personally.

Mr. Booker and Ms. Warren, both 2020
Presidential hopefuls, held a press conference where they stated that senators “who
don’t oppose President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh
are complicit in the
evil.” I understand that politics is a messy business and not for
the faint of heart, and have absolutely no issue with brawls based on policy and
a nominee’s judicial record; this is fair game in a confirmation process, but
what Democratic Senators did was to take a page out of the book of the same
unprincipled President that they claim to be fighting against. All this
transpired months before Ms. Ford came forward with her allegations.

Given this irresponsible
fearmongering by senior party leaders, it is no surprise that an intern working
for Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee was arrested after being caught illegally “posting private
information of several Republican U.S. senators on Wikipedia.”There
were also numerous instances ofprotestors angrily cornering and
haranguing Republican Senators all over the Capitol. Some of
the harassment was perpetrated even when lawmakers were at dinner with
their families.

Susan Collins's staff shared with
The New York Times copies of letters and multiple voice mail messages addressed
to the senator using vulgar language and outright threats. One caller told
a 25-year-old female staff member at one of Ms. Collins’s Maine offices that “he hoped she would be
raped and impregnated.”

The behaviour of Democratic Senators
during the hearings also left a lot to be desired. They came across like clowns
and petulant children, often behaving in the way Mr. Trump does at his
political rallies. Senator Booker compared himself to Spartacus, only to look
like a buffoon, when he begged to be punished for releasing documents
already cleared for release. He did succeed in ensuring I will not vote for him in
2020. Another Presidential hopeful, Kamala Harris, was seen pouting like a
three year old who had just been told the family trip Disneyland was cancelled.
Rather than stand her ground and make a case like a mature adult and US
Senator, she childishly stormed out of a committee meeting when Republicans
refused to direct the FBI to conduct an additional background check.

Interestingly, a Harvard University
CAPS-Harris poll conducted after Ms. Ford and Mr. Kavanaugh had given their
public testimonies found that 60% of voters supported
the confirmation of Kavanaugh, provided the FBI supplemental
investigation found no corroborating evidence. With the majority of Americans
agreeing the need for a supplemental investigation, the Democrats could have
come out with a win ahead of a crucial midterm election where flipping the
Senate would have allowed them to provide a serious check on a reckless President.
Instead, their behaviour galvanised the Republican base and likely squandered
any chance of their flipping the Senate. This sad event was a huge lost
opportunity to show the nation that Democrats can be the grown-ups in the room
with a President who behaves like a spoiled brat.

The same CAPS-Harris poll found that
amajority of voters believe the confirmation process was
politicized and mishandled by both sides, with 69% callingit a “national
disgrace". Had Democrats acted like mature, rational adults they
would likely have softened many independents and perhaps even won over the
large number of Republicans who despise Mr. Trump and are actively looking for
reasons to vote Democrat. Instead, Democrats came out looking childish,
hysterical and cartoonish to all but a small group who will vote for them even
if they started shooting people
on Fifth Avenue.

A few days after Justice Kavanaugh
was sworn in, Mr. Obama’s former Attorney General, Eric Holder, said at a
campaign rally "Michelle [Obama] always says “When they go low, we go
high…"No. No. When they go low, we kick them." I understand that many Democrats feel Obama was
weak in the face of Mitch McConnell’s bullying and that this cheated them out
their nominee. It is true that Mr. McConnell
played dirty politics and politically outmaneuvered the Democrats, but he never
went after Mr. Garland’s reputation or tried to discredit him personally;
unlike what Democrats did with Mr. Kavanaugh.

What Democrats need to remember is
there are some lines they should never be willing to cross, no matter
how great the cause. If they continue to cross these lines with impunity, and
at every turn, then there will come a point when the wider electorate will no
longer be see any difference between Mr. Trump and an opposition that claims to
be better than him.